LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nevada's senior U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto unloaded on Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday, calling the agency "lawless" and insisting she won't vote for additional funding without significant reforms.
WATCH | Senior Political Reporter Steve Sebelius reports on what she has to say and received a response from the Republican National Committee:
Speaking at a news conference with other community leaders, Cortez Masto denounced ICE tactics seen in Minneapolis and other cities.
"It is time for ICE and [Customs and Border Protection] to stop terrorizing our communities, brutalizing individuals in the name of a [President] Donald Trump national police force," she said. "This is not who our country is. This is now what this is about. And if we don't stand up as Americans and as individuals, our neighbors, our friends and our country, Donald Trump is going to do much worse."
Trump has stressed immigration enforcement since he returned to office in 2025, and top aide Stephen Miller has reportedly set an ambitious quota for deportations.
In Minnesota, a surge of ICE agents resulted in thousands of arrests, but also the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Videos in both cases failed to support the accounts of agents on the scene.
Cortez Masto referred to the Minneapolis shootings in her comments Tuesday.
"We do not want an ICE and a CPB that breaks the law, that is lawless, that is brutalizing our communities, that doesn't think anything about the constitutional rights of individuals, that discriminates on somebody because of the color of their skin, that kills U.S. citizens and individuals and beats them without any accountability or independent investigation, That is not what this country is about," she said.
Republicans, in contrast, accused Cortez Masto of contributing to the problem under the more lax border controls under former President Joe Biden.
"Cortez Masto should be ashamed. She was more than happy to open the border under Joe Biden, letting dangerous criminals run rampant on our streets, so it's no surprise she's attacking the brave men and women of law enforcement tasked with getting them out of Nevada," said Republican National Committee spokesman Nick Poche. "Nevada's tourism economy is being negatively impacted by her decision to screw over unrelated airport workers, disaster relief, and members of our armed forces out of pure spite."
Cortez Masto said in her remarks that stepped-up immigration enforcement in Nevada would be bad for the state's tourism, saying businesses in Minnesota suffered because of the presence of agents in that city.
"I don't want them here. I don't want that happening here," she said. "That would devastate our community, our tourism and travel. That's what this is about."
The senator said she would only vote for funding for ICE with several conditions, including:
- A ban on agents wearing masks and a requirement that they wear prominent identification, including badges and nametags.
- A requirement to obtain a warrant from a judge before entering private homes. (Agents have been using administrative warrants signed by government officials instead, which Cortez Masto — a former federal prosecutor and ex-Nevada attorney general — said violated the Fourth Amendment.)
- A requirement to wear body cameras and to retain and make the footage available to the public and the press.
- A requirement to undergo de-escalation training, similar to that given to police officers.
"I'm not going to move forward on any funding for ICE and CPB without serious reforms," she said.
But Democrats also face a dilemma: The One Big Beautiful Bill passed by Congress last summer provided ICE with billions of dollars in excess of its usual budget, which means the agency has money to continue its operations.
Funding for many other agencies that come under the Department of Homeland Security umbrella, however, will not have funding, including the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S Secret Service and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which safeguards U.S. elections.
Many employees in those agencies are considered essential and will continue to work until funding is restored, albeit without pay. Others will be furloughed.
All other federal budgets have been approved by Congress and signed by Trump.
Asked what leverage Democrats have, given that ICE has plenty of money and the other components of the department do not, Cortez Masto said her party will continue to demand Republicans exercise their oversight powers. But ultimately, she said, leverage comes from the streets.
"The leverage we have is the American public," she said. "Do you think that we would be this far if the American public hadn't come out and demanded change from this administration and this White House? So it's your voices."
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